1941 in Ireland

Incumbents

• President: Douglas Hyde
• Taoiseach: Éamon de Valera

  Events

• 2 January – three Carlow women are killed in a night of German bombing in parts of Leinster.
• 3 January – further German bombing of Dublin.
• 13 January – the poet and novelist James Joyce dies in Zurich.
• 24 January – part of the old State Chambers in Dublin Castle are destroyed by fire.
• 20 February – emergency Scientific Research Bureau set up to seek alternatives to raw materials in short supply.
• 21 February – first flight by a British Royal Air Force flying boat through the "Donegal Corridor", Irish airspace between its base in Northern Ireland and the Atlantic Ocean, a concession secretly agreed by Éamon de Valera.
• 6 March – 3,800 animals are slaughtered after the fiftieth case of foot-and-mouth disease is announced.
• 20 March – bread rationing is introduced.
• 21 March – Glencullen and Glencree machine-gunned by Luftwaffe in Bristol Channel.
• 22 March: 16:00 hours – collier St. Fintan attacked by two Luftwaffe bombers, off the coast of Pembrokeshire and sunk with all hands – 9 dead.
• 26 March – Edenvale bombed and machine-gunned by Luftwaffe in Bristol Channel.
• 27 March – Lady Belle bombed and machine-gunned by Luftwaffe in Irish Sea.
• 2 April – Edenvale bombed and machine-gunned by Luftwaffe in Bristol Channel.
• 15 April – Belfast Blitz: 1,000 people are killed in bombing raids on Belfast. 71 firemen with 13 fire tenders from Dundalk, Drogheda, Dublin and Dún Laoghaire cross the Irish border to assist their Belfast colleagues.
• 5 May – Belfast suffers its third bombing raid during World War II. The Dublin government authorises its emergency services to assist.
• 7 May – Wages Standstill Order.
• 12 May – Menapia bombed and machine-gunned by Luftwaffe off Welsh coast: 2 wounded.
• 14 May – five further outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease are reported.
• 17 May – Glenageary bombed and machine-gunned by Luftwaffe in Irish Sea.
• 19 May – City of Waterford bombed and machine-gunned by Luftwaffe off Welsh coast: 1 wounded.
• 26 May – a special sitting of Dáil Éireann unanimously condemns the introduction of conscription in Northern Ireland.
• 27 May – speaking in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Winston Churchill rules out the introduction of conscription in Northern Ireland.
• 30 May – Kyleclare bombed off Waterford coast.
• 31 May – bombing of Dublin in World War II: 34 people are killed when the Luftwaffe bomb part of Dublin.
• 2 June – Arklow is bombed by the Luftwaffe, with no casualties.
• 24 July – Dundalk is bombed by the Luftwaffe, with no casualties.
• Summer – 16,000 men and boys are employed on county council turf-cutting schemes.
• 22 August – S.S. Clonlara torpedoed and sunk by in North Atlantic while in Convoy OG 71 : 13 survivors and 11 dead.
• 12 October – Charles Stewart Parnell, the uncrowned King of Ireland, is honoured in a huge pageant in Dublin.
• November – Brendan Behan is released from Borstal in England and deported to Ireland.
• 8 December – the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Winston Churchill cables the Taoiseach inviting him to join the Allies of World War II.

  Arts and literature

• Myles na gCopaleen's parodic novel An Béal Bocht is published.
• Donagh MacDonagh's Veterans, and other poems is published.
• Louis MacNeice's poetry Plant and Phantom and study The Poetry of W. B. Yeats are published.
• Kate O'Brien's novel The Land of Spices is published; it is prohibited in Ireland by the Censorship of Publications Board.
• English poet John Betjeman becomes British press attaché in Dublin, living in Clondalkin.
• Opening of new Dublin Airport passenger terminal, designed by Desmond FitzGerald, the first significant International Style building in Ireland.

  Sport

Football

Golf

• Irish Open is not played due to The Emergency.

  Births

• 3 January – Derrick O'Connor, actor.
• 31 March – Jim O'Keeffe, Fine Gael TD for Cork South-West.
• 18 April – Michael D. Higgins, Labour Party TD, Cabinet Minister and 9th President of Ireland.
• 24 June – Gerard Clifford, Roman Catholic auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Armagh.
• 24 July – Tony Dunne, soccer player.
• 27 August – Paddy Barry, Cork hurler.
• 15 September – Tommy Carberry, National Hunt jockey and trainer.
• 18 September – Michael Hartnett, poet.
• 2 October – Donal Moynihan, Fianna Fáil TD.
• 13 October – Mick Doyle, rugby player and coach.
• 20 October – Mike Murphy, television and radio broadcaster.
• 11 November – Eddie Keher, Kilkenny hurler.
• 2 December – William Lee, Bishop of Waterford and Lismore.
• 10 December – Fionnula Flanagan, actress.
• ;Full date unknown
• :*Jonathan Bardon, historian and author.
• :*James Coleman, installation and video artist.
• :*Cyril Dunne, Galway Gaelic footballer.
• :*Paddy Flanagan, cyclist.
• :*Eamon Grennan, poet.
• :*Phil Larkin, Kilkenny hurler.
• :*Sean Matgamna, Trotskyist theorist.
• :*Caitlín Maude, poet, actress and traditional singer.
• :*Fiachra Trench, musician and composer.

  Deaths

• 6 January – F. R. Higgins, poet and theatre director.
• 10 January – John Lavery, artist.
• 13 January – James Joyce, writer and poet.
• 15 February – Andrew Jameson, public servant, businessman and Seanad member.
• 19 February – Hamilton Harty, conductor and composer.
• 13 March – Finlay Jackson, cricketer and rugby player.
• 1 April – Jennie Wyse Power, member of the Seanad from 1922 to 1936.
• 19 May – Lola Ridge, anarchist poet and editor.
• 4 July – William John English, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1901 at Vlakfontein, South Africa.
• 19 August – John T. Browne, Mayor of Houston, Texas.
• 9 September – William Gerard Barry, painter.
• 11 September – John MacLoughlin, elected for 9 years to Seanad from 1922 as an Independent.
• 11 October – Mildred Anne Butler, painter.
• 26 November – James Jackman, recipient of the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1941 at Tobruk, Libya; killed in action the next day.
• ;Full date unknown
• :*Sidney Royse Lysaght, writer.